So this week, in political thought today, we’re reading Roger Scuton’s A POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY: ARGUMENTS FOR CONSERVATISM. Here are some excerpts from the last chapter on T.S. Eliot. They’re all relevant to Ralph’s spin on the Straussian theme of PROGRESS or RETURN. The real . . . . Continue Reading »
Leo Strauss’s “Progress or Return” was on my mind this morning as I listened to NPR’s Weekend Edition. (I had re-read Strauss’s great essay this week with a class of students.) Unsurprisingly, there were stories and issues on the latter that might be illuminated by . . . . Continue Reading »
It seems that just weeks before the general election that old leftist rag, Time Magazine, has flushed out evidence of militant, right wing, militia types running around my neck of the woods: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2022516,00.html As it turns out about fifteen years . . . . Continue Reading »
As President of the John Adams Center for the Study of Faith, Philosophy and Public Affairs, I’ve been working on a statement of our purposes, and thus on an explanation of the critical importance for society of careful philosophical engagement with the deepest underlying issues. I . . . . Continue Reading »
1. So I talked to and listened to part of a good presentation by local TEA PARTY people last night. They mostly seemed to be from a conservative, Christian, home schooling background. (There definitely is nothing wrong with that.) But they talked nothing but economics—against bailouts and . . . . Continue Reading »
That’s the job of the professor, according to many influential theorists who belong to the MLA. Anyone who doesn’t teach in opposition to the hegemonic establishment shouldn’t get to teach. The job of the professor is to transform the young by authoritatively encouraging them to . . . . Continue Reading »
Yuval Levin, a researcher of the fractured relationship between Edmund Burke and Thomas Paine, recently wrote an interesting post about Burke’s significant appeal for conservatives as a founding father (and it should be noted that leftists won’t stop admiring him either). This raises the . . . . Continue Reading »
That’s David Brooks’ judicious view of the most celebrated novel of the year. It’s too easy to display people today as being empty or insignificant or having nothing left to lose, and it’s natural for literary men and women to be critical of times without obvious exemplars . . . . Continue Reading »
Tip-o-the-hat to Salem, Oregon’s resident conservative, Mr. Bill Parsons, for alerting me to Dr. Angelo M. Codevilla’s essay, America’s Ruling Class — And the Perils of Revolution : http://spectator.org/archives/2010/07/16/americas-ruling-class-and-the/print . . . . Continue Reading »
Because time is running out when it comes to getting the prepublication deal of $17.79, I thought I’d remind you in a characteristically shameless and self-promotional way to buy MY new book. Here are most of the words that will appear on the beautiful dust jacket: An Indispensable Guide to . . . . Continue Reading »
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